Many of those young demonstrators who protested against the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision when it legalized abortion have become gray-headed after 38 years of opposition.

The younger generation has moved in to take over the fight. John Paul Deddens and Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life have seen this on a daily basis.

"We are the survivor generation," Hawkins said. "We were almost aborted ourselves. So I think that resonates a lot with young people."

Doctors recommended Deddens be aborted, because they mistakenly believed he had Down's Syndrome.

"We kind of have this bond and this knowledge that we are survivors, that we came through this great American holocaust," Deddens said.

After this year's March for Life in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 24, a group of young people gathered at their own separate rally to pledge to continue the pro life fight.

Earlier in the day, Brandi Swindell was protesting outside the nation's biggest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood. She's in charge of Generation Life, a group dedicated to getting young people involved.

"The majority -- I think it's 72 percent -- believe that abortion is morally wrong," Swindell said. "They know what it's like to be open prey in their mother's womb. They could have been aborted."

Pam Stenzel, the co-author of the book, "Nobody Told Me," counsels young audiences about sex and abstinence. She always tells them about the case of a 15-year-old rape victim.

"This particular girl chose to give her child life and then to place that child with an adoptive family and that child was me," Stenzel said. "My biological father was a rapist. I don't even know my ethnicity, but I'm still a human being and I still have value. And I tell people I didn't deserve the death penalty because of the crime of my biological father."

While any young person should be aware an abortion kills another young life, they should know it may also risk their personal health. Breast surgeon Dr. Angela Lanfranchi said among other risks, there are links between breast cancer and abortion.

"Since Roe v. Wade, an additional 300,000 breast cancer cases that might not have been if people had not chosen abortion," she said.

This year, young people in the nation's capitol, weren't just protesting abortion in America. Some of them headed to the Chinese embassy to stand against China's one-child policy, which has forced millions of women to get abortions and also forced many couples to undergo sterilization.

"This generation is connecting the dots that human rights begin in the womb and that the human rights violations that we see in China are directly connected to abortion on demand," Swindell said.

Paul Strand

CBN News Washington Sr. Correspondent

As senior correspondent in CBN's Washington, D.C., bureau, Paul Strand has covered a variety of political and social issues, with an emphasis on defense, justice, and Congress. Follow Paul on Twitter @PaulStrandCBN and "like" him at Facebook.com/PaulStrandCBN.